Miami University president 'appalled' by sorority parties gone wild

May 12, 2010

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OXFORD - Miami University President David Hodge has called for changes in policies and standards of Greek organizations after two sorority formals turned into drunken puke fests.

Details of the second destructive incident - involving Alpha Xi Delta's affair at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on March 26 - came out Wednesday, a day after university officials suspended Pi Beta Phi's Ohio Zeta Chapter for similar behavior at Lake Lyndsay Lodge in Butler County.

Pi Beta Phi received a one-year suspension from campus activities, but university officials recommended a tougher two-year suspension for Alpha Xi Delta. The sorority is appealing that recommendation, university officials said.

It detailed the conduct of the sorority and their dates who urinated all over the building, defaced restrooms, intentionally crashed drinks on the dance floor, vomited all over restrooms and at the dinner table, swore at the staff, and tried to steal bottles of booze from the bar.

"Things went from bad to worse as the night progressed," wrote Rhonda Miller, private event coordinator.

At one point, she said she followed a male partygoer who ducked under the stanchions around the Slave Pen exhibit, which was built in the early 1800s and was used by Kentucky slave trader, Capt. John W. Anderson.

"In catching up with him, I found him about to relieve himself on the corner of this priceless and sanctified artifact," Miller wrote.

"I told him to get out of the closed off area and use the restroom on the main floor. A Bensons Catering employee later found the same boy attempting to relieve himself on the freight elevator where Bensons had stored their food."

After a sorority member vomited at the dinner table about a half hour into the 7 p.m. event, Miller said "we realized that seemingly every single sorority sister had illegally brought alcohol into the building in plastic juice or soda bottles and flasks."

The staff collected and dumped 50 to 60 plastic bottles of alcohol and no less than eight flasks throughout the evening, she wrote.

Miller said in her memo that Bensons employees had warned her that the event would be a wild one. They told her the sorority had been banned from BB Riverboats, which Bensons also catered, following an event where several couples were caught having intercourse in the hallways and on the top deck of a boat.

BB Riverboats officials denied that Wednesday, saying the incident never happened and that the sorority was never banned from their facilities.

Freedom Center officials could not be reached for further comment although a voice mail message was left for Paul Bernish, the center's chief communications officer and recipient of Miller's memo. The Enquirer obtained the memo from Miami University.

No one answered the phone at the national Alpha Xi Delta office in Indianapolis.